Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cash-dispensing machines, such as, without limitation, kiosks for casinos and other gaming enterprises, automated teller machines (ATMs), and bill-breaking machines.
Description of the Related Art
This section introduces aspects that may help facilitate a better understanding of the invention. Accordingly, the statements of this section are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is prior art or what is not prior art.
Many casinos and other gaming enterprises have electronic kiosks that enable their patrons to perform different functions, such as ATM (automatic teller machine) cash withdrawals and bill breaking. In an ATM cash withdrawal, the kiosk dispenses a requested amount of cash to a patron. In a bill-breaking operation, a patron inserts a relatively large-denomination bill into the kiosk and, in return, the kiosk dispenses a number of smaller-denomination bills of equal total monetary value. For example, if a patron inserts a $100 bill into the kiosk, then the kiosk may dispense five $20 bills in return. If a patron inserts a $5 bill into the kiosk, then the kiosk would dispense five $1 bills in return.
A conventional kiosk has different cash cassettes provisioned for different denominations, such as one $1 cassette, two $5 cassettes, two $20 cassettes, and one $100 cassette, where each cash cassette is supposed to be filled with bills of only its corresponding denomination, which are dispensed by the kiosk to support the different types of kiosk functions. Unfortunately, either mistakenly or maliciously, it is possible for a person responsible for loading cash into the cash cassettes to fill a cassette with bills of the wrong denomination. For example, the $1 cassette could be filled with $20 bills. In that case, whenever the kiosk performs a bill-breaking operation for a $5 bill, the kiosk will dispense five $100 bills instead of five $1 bills.